UK Supreme Court allows water company to be sued for polluting waterways

This popped up in one of my feeds earlier today and I just had to check it out. The case involves a long-running dispute between the Statutory Undertaker, United Utilities, and the Manchester Ship Canal Company. The Canal Company threatened to sue United Utilities for trespass and nuisance caused by the discharge of foul water into its canal, when the capacity of the water treatment facilities is exceeded. In response, United Utilities asked the court to decide whether it was protected from litigation under the 1991 Water Industries Act or whether the Canal Company had the right to sue. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of United Utilities, stating that tresspass and nuisance could only be claimed if the Statutory Undertaker were to be acting negligently, irrespective of how frequently the discharges occurred or how impactful they were. The Canal Company appealed to the Supreme Court who unanimously allowed the appeal, ruling that the 1991 Act does not prevent a claim being brought against United Utilities even if there had been no acts of negligence nor deliberate malfeasance.

Environmental campaign groups are viewing this as a ‘Landmark’ judgement that will provide more robust legal tools in their plight to hold utility companies, who pollute, to account.

The original article in Construction Management (on-line) can be found here: Water companies can be sued for polluting, says supreme court - Construction Management

The Supreme Court Judgement Press Summary can be found here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2022-0121-press-summary.pdf

The Water Industry Act 1991 can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/56/contents

Duncan Goodwin

Landscape Architecture Portfolio Leader